Shen Lining, Wang Shimin, Dai Wei, Zhang Zhiguo
School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China.
Institute of Smart Health, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, China.
J Med Internet Res. 2019 Mar 26;21(3):e12625. doi: 10.2196/12625.
With the widespread application of a robot to surgery, growing literature related to robotics in surgery (RS) documents widespread concerns from scientific researchers worldwide. Although such application is helpful to considerably improve the accuracy of surgery, we still lack the understanding of the multidiscipline-crossing status and topic distribution related to RS.
The aim of this study was to detect the interdisciplinary nature and topic hotspots on RS by analyzing the current publication outputs related to RS.
The authors collected publications related to RS in the last 21 years, indexed by the Web of Science Core Collection. Various bibliometric methods and tools were used, including literature distribution analysis at the country and institution level and interdisciplinary collaboration analysis in the different periods of time. Co-word analysis was performed based on the keywords with high frequency. The temporal visualization bar presented the evolution of topics over time.
A total of 7732 bibliographic records related to RS were identified. The United States plays a leading role in the publication output related to RS, followed by Italy and Germany. It should be noted that the Yonsei University in South Korea published the highest number of RS-related publications. Furthermore, the interdisciplinary collaboration is uneven; the number of disciplines involved in each paper dropped from the initial 1.60 to the current 1.31. Surgery; Engineering; Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, and Medical Imaging; and Neurosciences and Neurology are the 4 core disciplines in the field of RS, all of which have extensive cooperation with other disciplines. The distribution of topic hotspots is in imbalanced status, which can be categorized into 7 clusters. Moreover, 3 areas about the evolution of topic were identified, namely (1) the exploration of techniques that make RS implemented, (2) rapid development of robotic systems and related applications in surgery, and (3) application of a robot to excision of tissues or organs targeted at various specific diseases.
This study provided important insights into the interdisciplinary nature related to RS, which indicates that the researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds should strengthen cooperation to publish a high-quality output. The research topic hotspots related to RS are relatively scattered, which has begun to turn to the application of RS targeted at specific diseases. Our study is helpful to provide a potential guide to the direction of the field of RS for future research in the field of RS.
随着机器人在手术中的广泛应用，全球科学研究人员对手术机器人技术（RS）的相关文献日益关注。尽管这种应用有助于显著提高手术的准确性，但我们对与RS相关的多学科交叉现状和主题分布仍缺乏了解。
本研究旨在通过分析当前与RS相关的出版物产出，探究RS的跨学科性质和主题热点。
作者收集了过去21年中被科学引文索引核心合集收录的与RS相关的出版物。使用了各种文献计量方法和工具，包括国家和机构层面的文献分布分析以及不同时期的跨学科合作分析。基于高频关键词进行共词分析。时间可视化条形图展示了主题随时间的演变。
共识别出7732条与RS相关的文献记录。美国在与RS相关的出版物产出方面发挥主导作用，其次是意大利和德国。值得注意的是，韩国延世大学发表的RS相关出版物数量最多。此外，跨学科合作不均衡；每篇论文涉及的学科数量从最初的1.60降至目前的1.31。外科学、工程学、放射学、核医学与医学影像学以及神经科学与神经病学是RS领域的4个核心学科，它们均与其他学科有广泛合作。主题热点分布不均衡，可分为7个聚类。此外，还确定了3个主题演变领域，即（1）使RS得以实施的技术探索，（2）机器人系统及其在手术中的相关应用的快速发展，以及（3）机器人在针对各种特定疾病的组织或器官切除中的应用。
本研究为与RS相关的跨学科性质提供了重要见解，表明不同学科背景的研究人员应加强合作以产出高质量成果。与RS相关的研究主题热点相对分散，已开始转向针对特定疾病的RS应用。我们的研究有助于为RS领域未来的研究提供该领域方向的潜在指导。
